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Petz Site
Petz sites are websites run by Petz fans. They're a big component of the Petz Community. From Petz 3 onward, PF Magic encouraged the proliferation of these sites with their Petz Publisher. The heyday of Petz sites was around the late '90s and early-mid '00s when the games were at their most mainstream, but new sites continue to pop up as older players come back to the community or new players join. Features * Adoptions of individual Petz. These may require an application to be e-mailed in for the host to choose from. The adopted Petz are then e-mailed out to their new owners. Less commonly, some websites have downloadable adoptions anyone may take. ** Litters of bred Petz from the same parent(s) or from the same hexed breed file. ** MPAs (M'y '''P'ersonal 'A'doptions), rehoming of the host's personal Petz. * '''Downloads of hexed breeds, Toyz, clothes, or Playscenes made with the Playscene Editor. * Crew sections, where the host will display their personal Petz and include details such as their name, breeder/hexer, show name, birth date, etc. * Hex archives, where the host displays a gallery of their own hexed files for trade, adoption, or reference. * Tutorials for hexing, HTML, drawing, etc. * An About page detailing the host, their hobbies and interests, real pets, etc. * Links to other Petz sites. These may be accompanied by graphics like banners and buttons. * Customized Awards to and from other site hosts, either related to showing or the site itself.Wayback Petz: Gallery * "Find it"/"treasure hunts" where special downloads were hidden around the site. * Tag boards, small, self-contained, text-only chat rooms. Features that have largely fallen out of favor in newer sites: * Individual shows. These have now almost entirely moved to larger centralized communities like forums. * Having a particular Pet "host"/act as a mascot to the site. * The Petz Player. * Stud/'dam(e)' services that involved sending of .pet files. * Statements on Petz abuse. Aesthetic Most Petz sites were founded in the Web 1.0 era and were built from simple HTML from scratch. Most hosts' site-running skills were self-taught.[https://www.themarysue.com/petz-subculture-women/ The Mary Sue: Gaming's Forgotten Petz Subculture and the Women Who Shaped It] Older sites used quintessential early-Internet features such as animated .gifs and embedded background MIDI music that have fallen out of mainstream usage. Frames are a common feature on older websites, and may interfere with archiving such as the Wayback Machine, rendering their contents inaccessible.Wikipedia: Framing (World Wide Web) A common naming scheme for earlier sites was to designate themselves a kennel and/or cattery, depending on which version of the games the host owned. Community Update network, etc. Many older sites were part of webrings. Sites may be linked together as "sister sites", usually owned by the host's personal friends. Petz Abuse The existence of "Petz abuse" — mainly excessive spraying of a Pet with the Spray Bottle for amusement — was a heated topic in the early days of the community, especially due to the amount of children involved and the cartoony but believably lifelike nature of Petz. Many players decried the Spray Bottle toy as a tool of abuse and urged others to delete it from their Toyz folder, with some players refusing to adopt Petz out to those who hadn't done so.Tumblr.com: Post from the founder of "pro-abuse" site The Petz Underground More extreme viewpoints on the subject claimed Petz abuse would lead to real-life violence against animals.Forever Heavenly Kennelz Many sites had banners or animations declaring that they were anti-abuse, or pages dedicated to "raising awareness" of the topic, as exemplified by: * Beeper the Honker: NO PETZ ABUSE!! * Iceberg Petz: Stop Abuse * JJ's Dogz and Catz: Join the Fight Against Petz Abuse Several "pro-abuse" sites such as Petz Underground were launched, either out of childish spite and/or tongue-in-cheek humor, as a counter to the excessive sentimentality of the anti-abuse movement. By the early '00s, as the player base got older and less children joined, the hysteria around Petz abuse died down and is largely forgotten about, especially with the advent of tools like PetzA and Runaway Rescue that allow players to override the game's natural Neglect stat. Hosting Many Petz sites use free hosting. GeoCities was encouraged by the Petz Publisher, and Angelfire and Tripod were also popular choices. Others relied on small self-owned domains. Images were frequently hosted on Photobucket, whose decline in visual quality and accessibility has had a negative effect on the sites that used it. Modern Petz sites may use free template-based website hosts like Wix, Weebly, or Webs.com. Gallery MPKlink.gif|A graphic advertising Megan's Petz Kennels. petzban.gif|An animated banner advertising Christine'z Kennelz hopeguard.jpg|A graphic from Sand'z Cattery. References Category:Petz Community